into Valdemar.
So she went out to scout the beast market first.
She had hoped to slip away without disturbing Skif, who had fallen asleep on the bed, exhausted by the strain of the strange day.
But no matter what Need claimed about her own powers, evidently 'attracting Luck' was no longer one of them. She had no sooner gotten outside the door of the inn when Skiff came panting up behind her.
She sighed and kept from snapping at him. It was fairly obvious that he was not going to let her go out alone. And it wasn't simply more of his mother-henning. The peculiar look in his eyes told her all she needed to know.
He was infatuated with her.
And I ought to recognize infatuation when I see it, since I've suffered under it myself.
He undoubtedly had convinced himself that he was in love with her.
Wonderful, she thought to herself, as she headed determinedly toward her goal, despite having him trailing along behind her. _just wonderful My partner thinks he's in love with me, my Companion wants me to become some kind of Foretold Hero, my sword has a mind of its own, and I'm going to have to find someone from an elusive tribe of an elusive people all on my own, in a city where I don't even speak the language.
No, somehow I don't think that attracting Luck is on the list of active spells...Chapterr Fifteen DARKWIND
Treyvan roused his feathers, fluffing his crest and shaking his head, his claws digging long furrows into the thick weedy turf. He held his head high, his muscles stiff with impatience. Darkwind glanced sideways at him and smiled a little.
A shadow passed over the scout, and he looked up automatically, but it was only a cloud passing across the sun. Vree was waiting for him back in the forest, away from the temptation of Treyvan's crest feathers.
'How long have you and Hydona been mated?' he asked, with pretended innocence.
'Twelve yearsss,' the gryphon replied, rousing his feathers again, and casting his own glance upward. 'What'sss that got to do with anything?'
And you've made quite a few mating flights, haven't you?' the scout continued, his smile broadening. Treyvan was so preoccupied he didn't even realize that Darkwind was teasing him.
'Well,' Treyvan said, with a sidelong glance at Hydona. Hydona only roused her own feathers, watching him coyly. 'Yesss.'
'If you've got so much experience at it,' he laughed, reaching up to scratch behind Treyvan's ear-tufts, 'don't you think you ought to be able to take your time about this one?' Treyvan closed his eyes, wearing an expression of long-suffering patience.' You, a human, alwayss in ssseason, with matesss ambusshing you even when you are bathing-you tell me that? You crrreaturess neverrr ssstop.
Hydona made a choking sound; her mate pointedly looked away from her. Darkwind knew that faint gargling from past exchanges with the pair; she was trying not to chuckle. He raised his eyebrows at her, then gave her a broad wink. She hid her head by turning it to the side, but her shaking shoulders told him she was stifling outright laughter.
'Anyway,' Treyvan continued, in an aggrieved tone, 'you know very well that I casst the initial ssspell thiss morrrning. And you know verrry well that until we complete it with the sssecond ssspell, it'sss going to make me itchierrr than a plague of sssand-fleasss. I explained it to you often enough.' He shook his head and made a grinding sound with his beak. 'I feel asss if my ssskin isss too tight,' he complained.
Darkwind bit his tongue to keep from making a retort to that particular complaint. 'In that case,' he said, soothingly, 'I had probably better leave you two alone.'
'oh, he'll live,' Hydona countered, controlling herself and her humor admirably. 'Trrruly he will. You're rrready for what we'll do thisss time, I hope? Not like the lassst time?' He flushed at the memory of the 'last time,' when he had been much younger. He had been close enough to them, and unshielded, so that he had gotten caught up in the extremely potent magic of their mating spell.
The first spell that Treyvan had mentioned was what actually made the mating fertile; otherwise their sexual activity was purely for enjoyment.
The second would ensure conception. And despite Treyvan's acerbic comment about 'humans always being in season,' the fact was that the gryphons were at least as active in that area as any humans Darkwind knew.
'I'll be fine,' he told her. 'I'm not fourteen anymore.' Hydona laughed. 'I'd notisssed,' she teased. 'Essspecially around Dawnfirrre. When will you be picking a mate?'
